WHY BUY A BAT HOUSE?

America's bats are an invaluable natural resource.  Yet, due to decades of unwarranted human fear and persecution, and the lose of habitat, bats are in alarming decline.  You can help by putting up a bat house! You will benefit from having fewer lawn pests, and will add to the diminishing number of roosts that bats desperately need.  People often ask "how can one bat house help?"  The answer: just one of the bat houses that we build can hold up to 200 bats and provide a roost that pregnant females can use to give birth and to raise their young pups.

Also, bats can live up to 30 years and are very loyal to their roosts.  They will return year after year to your bat house to raise more pups that will add to the depleting bat population.  In addition, bat houses make wonderful conversation pieces.  You can invite friends and family over, and at dusk watch your bats emerge from their homes and fly back and forth in your yard gobbling up insects.  Just one bat can eat up to 600 mosquito-sized insects in just one hour.  Your friends will undoughtedly be impressed with your bats and bat house and may choose to get one of their own.  So you see, one person can help bats by providing needed roosts and spreading the word.  Bats need all the help they can get from us!

BAT HOUSE RESEARCH

Although bat houses may someday contribute greatly to even saving endangered species,  The first goal is to preserve the most abundant species of bats in sufficient numbers to maintain nature's balance.  Their lose contributes to a growing demand for toxic pesticides that threaten our environment and our health.

Bat house research performed by Donna, together with Dr. Merlin Tuttle from Bat Conservation International, documents substantial success and exciting potential for helping rebuild bat populations.  More significantly, it shows how slight modifications, often as simple as moving a bat house to a different location in your yard, can substantially improve the odds of successful occupation by bats.

We are continuously learning more about bat preferences and making changes to our bat house designs to best accommodate our flying friends.  Donna has conducted research on bat roosting for over 10 years.  Most of the research has been on the alternative sites that bats have chosen when a natural roost can not be found.  Buildings, bridges, and bat houses have been my focus and we would like to learn more from people who have their own bat houses or have bats in their barn or home.  We can also help people who want to exclude bats from their houses but would like to keep them in their yard on mosquito patrol.

ABOUT BAT HOUSES

Bats naturally need a place to roost during the day and usually select a warm, secluded location that best fits their requirements. However, many times the needs of the local bats conflict with ours! For example, the photograph below shows a small bat colony roosting in the attic of an older home. Rather than destroying this valuable colony, we recommend excluding them from the structure and providing an alternative roosting site, that is, a bat house.

Here is an example of a well-established colony of bats occupying a multi-chamber bat house. The view is directly upward and into the house. Look at all their happy faces!

Some bat houses can be more elaborate as the photo below indicates. It is not necessary that the average home owner go to such lengths to provide habitat for bats. In fact, we recommend a couple of small, and attractive, wooden bat houses that work quite well in attracting bats.

LOCATING A BAT HOUSE

So, if you build or buy a bat house, where should you locate it for optimizing your success in attracting bats?

1. Locate a site that is unobstructed toward the south or southwest and that receives considerable direct sun throughout the day. Bats like it HOT!

2. Hang the house on the side of an existing structure (house, barn, etc.) as high as is practical - the higher the better. Alternatively, the bat house can be mounted on a tall pole, at least twelve feet or more high. Interestingly, bat houses hung in trees have not been very successful.

3. If mounting the bat house on an existing structure be sure to mount it such that the bat house is stable and can't swing in the wind.

4. Be patient! It might take a season or two for the bats to find and occupy your house. First occupancy usually takes place in the first summer season after placement.

5. Maintenance is usually not required, nor is taking down the bat house for winter storage. However, if you like, you can remove the bat house during the winter season but be sure to put it up early in the spring. Check every two years that the house is still tight - recaulking may be necessary.

6. A sure indication that your bat house is occupied is the presence of bat guano (droppings) under the bat house. These small, shiny, granular pellets are harmless and can be swept up and distributed in a garden - they are a prized fertilizer.